FULL NAME: Lucien Bauer.
D.O.B. + AGE: 10 / 25 / XXXX | 27.
ZODIAC: Scorpio / Cancer / Capricorn.
GENDER: Male.
PRONOUNS: He/Him.
ETHNICITY: White.
ORIENTATION: Bisexual.
OCCUPATION: Line Cook.
"Understand that there is a BEAST within you that can drink 'til it is sick, but cannot drink 'til it is satisfied."
— Frank Bidart
A city dweller, never knowing life beyond the falsified stars of street lamps and stop lights. A deadbeat, yet, thankfully, mostly absent father, with a distant and overworked mother, Lucien has never had a direction or path to follow. Knuckles against bone, the smell of rust and iron engulfing his nose, and bouts of hot, salty tears leaving their streaks, a life of violence was the preferred outlet for his anger. His early teen years were riddled with petty crimes, threatening unsuspecting patrons just looking for scraps of money to buy food for lunch. Shaky fingers and the tightness in his chest became a familiar feeling, the adrenaline of theft becoming less and less exhilarating, all the while skipping class for society didn’t want someone like him anyways.
A blurry vision of blue and red, distant yelling ringing in his ears, body feeling bruised and aching, a plateau has been reached. A report was made, a cry for help even, he just didn’t know. A dull ache gave bleary memories, the fleeting remembrance at the crack of his jaw and hitting the floor. Before he knew it, he was put in the system, four years before being free from the burden of youth. Moving from home to home, Lucien was given a meagre direction, but at least he had a routine, and a hot meal every night, even if there was still not an ounce of affection.
Right before his 18th birthday, Lucien had weeks to find a place to live on his own after being perpetually failed by the system he was forced into. He will never fully admit it, but he’s eternally grateful for his now roommate Nathaniel for allowing a damaged, run down teenager to take up the extra room he was offering on Craigslist.
He currently resides in a dilapidated house with three other men; Alec, Spencer, and Nathaniel. He works as a line cook for the majority of his income, with the occasional under-the-table payouts and contract work on the side. He scrapes by, aimlessly surviving the day to day without any concrete plans for the future. Throughout the mundane, he’s also picked up a stray cat that he takes care of — Jasper.
He’s always been particularly empathetic to lost causes.
FULL NAME: Cassiopeia Aoki.
D.O.B. + AGE: 05 / 27 / XXXX | 25.
ZODIAC: Gemini / Aquarius / Cancer.
GENDER: Female.
PRONOUNS: She/Her.
ETHNICITY: Japanese.
ORIENTATION: Bisexual.
OCCUPATION: Music Retail.
"The cage is open. You can walk out any time you want. Why are you still in there?"
— Heather Havrilesky
The black sheep of the brood, an imposter to the flock, she wonders if the shepherds know there’s something off about her. She’s already made herself the imbalance in being born — eldest daughter to four younger brothers, she thinks her parents just assume all young girls are like that. There was never time to invest in the individual child growing up, just the brutality of privileged academic expectations and bragging rights to the other parents who live vicariously through their children’s successes. In a household raised with a “healthy” competitive drive to outshine the other, what else does one do but learn to play the game?
How do you play a game with hidden rules? You adapt.
She learned that her interests are unimportant in the grand scheme of things, especially if they are deemed “abnormal” or “useless”. She learned how to navigate the all girls private schools she was enrolled in, moreso when her parents decided to send her to a boarding school for her high school years. She learned how to blend in, malleable and amendable — even at the cost of losing herself in the process. In her moments of grief, she learned how to cry without making a sound, how to swallow her heart when it threatened to spill out of her mouth. A comatose teenage girl, dull behind the eyes, working towards a future she didn’t get to choose.
She was not excited or proud when she received valedictorian. Her heart did not stir when she stood at graduation, making her generic speech. She feigned gratitude when nepotism landed her at the university her father taught at. The only thing she could feel was the buzzing in her brain, the stinging behind her eyes, and the ticking in her chest warning that the game is almost over.
It happened in the middle of a lecture hall, a hundred students witnessing her breaking point. Violent and uncontrollable, her carefully constructed facade wiped away in an instant. A seizure, loud and disruptive, she looks back and wonders if that is when the shepherds finally fed her to the wolves.
A diagnosis, a withdrawal from university, and a loss of purpose, Cassio decided to move in with her grandmother, far away from the stress that caused her seizure in the first place. With her newfound freedom, she decided to throw away the name [REDACTED] as her first act of defiance. And as she navigates the challenges of figuring out who she is again, she has to ask:
Did the wolves end up eating her?
Or did she just become one?